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Ok product

I made the mistake the other day of asking my little niece what she wanted for her dinner while she was staying over and she said Toad in the Hole, apparently they had it at school the previous week for lunch and she thought it was a funny thing and also liked it. Now my attempts at making Yorkshire Pudding are doomed to fail so it was store bought for us and this one from Asda was big enough for all three of us as it contains 8 sausages.

It takes about thirty minutes to cook and the yorkshire pudding rose to great heights and was a lovely golden brown with no soggy areas, the sausages looked a little pale and were not that big but the whole thing smelled quite nice.

Taste wise it was pretty good although I had smothered mine with red onion gravy, the sausages were a little bland but the niece loved them and actually ate three of them so they cannot be all bad. The Yorkshire pudding was very nice indeed, very crisp and with a nice smooth taste.

A nice easy item to cook straight from the freezer and while it is not something I would choose to eat between the two of us when the little lady comes to stay I would get it again if she asked, mind you in future I may not ask and just give her what we are eating.

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A delicious ready meal, pefect when your short on time.

I do like to cook my husband as nice and nutritious meals as my talent and my budget will allow, but due to the fact that I work and run a house as well sometimes I do like to have a few ready meals at my disposal, one of these is the one I will now review.

The product I will now review is "Asda's toad in the hole"

The packaging is simply and effective, the box is reasonably flat and rectangular in shape, there is a large picture of the cooked toad in the hole, perched carefully on a plate, with the rest of the box being a navy blue colour.There is the usual nutritional information on the box, but due to the shape of the box, this is situated on one of the narrow sides, thus making the writing quite small and for some people would be difficult to read.

Upon opening the box you will find the silver tin tray that holds the "toad", this is sealed in a plastic sleeve.When you remove the sleeve you will see the dinner in all it's glory..... Ok at this stage it doesn't look to appetising!As this is a frozen ready meal the sausages are pale and they are nestled in amongst the uncooked and frozen batter mixture.

Unlike most of the other Asda ready meals, this is the only oven cook only meal in the range, this I assume is due to the fact that it sits within a tin tray.

The cooking instructions are again simply, pre heat the oven to 220c/425f/gas mark 7, place the tray, minus the plastic sleeve into the centre of the oven, bake for 35 - 40 minutes until crispy and golden.

Ok, so this meal is not going to tax your brain in any way, shape or form, but the end result is quite magnificent!

After the meal is crisped up, gone golden, rose ever so slightly and the sausages are visibly cooked, you can remove the tray from the oven.I usually leave it for a couple of minutes due to heat of the tray, you try dishing up at this stage and you will definitely lose some much needed skin from your fingers!

After a couple of minutes I cut the toad in the hole into two pieces, not to serve between two, even though I am sure that is how it is meant to be served, but more due to the fact that it wouldn't fit on the plate otherwise!

For the sake of this review I actually tried it, which is quite unusual as these are solely bought for the old man's dinners.

The batter is crispy and delicious, with the usual greasiness that you expect with Yorkshire pudding, enough to give it flavour, but not so much it makes you feel sick.The batter is cooked right through, with the base even being nice and not sloppy like you would expect. The sausages are tasty and ever so slightly chewy, this is due to them being oven baked, I prefer them cooked in this manner.The batter has rose slightly around the edges, giving it an airy and more crunchy texture.

I will not go into the nutritional information, needless to say these are inevitably going to be high in fat and calories due to the sausages and the fat that is in the tray for the cooking method, so these should be eaten occasionally.

To purchase, these will set you back 98p, or as part of an ongoing offer 5 Asda ready meals for £4.00, which is exceptional value as the meals including this one are plenty big enough for one, and for two if padded out a bit with some vegetables (old weight watchers trick!)

Other meals available in the range are - lasagne, fish pie, chips and gravy, chips and curry sauce, spring rolls, pasta bakes.